The African Centre for Climate Actions and Rural Development Initiative (ACCARD), in collaboration with the African Climate Foundation (ACF), will host a High-Level Stakeholder and Policy Engagement on Climate Change, Sustainable Land Use and Agriculture (SLUA) in Abuja from 8 to 10 July 2025.

The engagement comes at a time when rapid population growth, environmental degradation, and the rising use of harmful agrochemicals are placing unsustainable pressure on Nigeria’s food systems.

The engagement will serve as a strategic platform to generate smart, inclusive, and actionable solutions through policy reform, innovation, and high-level collaboration.

“This is more than a meeting; it is a strategic step toward climate resilience, food security, and a sustainable future for all Nigerians,” ACCARD’s Freeman Elohor Oluowo said in a statement.

The event builds on a comprehensive scoping study conducted by the African Climate Foundation in April 2025, which assessed Nigeria’s agroecological practices and identified key barriers and opportunities for scaling nature-based solutions.

The Abuja engagement will validate these findings and build both policy and financial momentum toward Nigeria’s agroecological transition.

“The transition to sustainable land use and agriculture is not just an environmental necessity — it is an economic and social imperative for Nigeria. Through this engagement, we aim to support the Nigerian government and partners in creating enabling policies, unlocking financing, and strengthening local capacity to build a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable food system,” Japeth Muli of the African Climate Foundation said.

High-level stakeholders, including representatives from the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, the Senate Committee on Climate Change, the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, and the Presidential National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) will participate in shaping a national roadmap for sustainable land use and agriculture, focused on four key priorities: raising awareness of the adverse effects of harmful agrochemical use; strengthening institutional coordination and technical capacity; unlocking financing pathways for smallholder farmers, sustainable food systems coupled with ecosystem restoration; building broad-based coalitions for grassroots mobilisation and policy advocacy.

This engagement will bring together top-level government officials, development partners, academic experts, civil society actors, and financial institutions to jointly address the intersecting challenges of climate change, food insecurity, land degradation, and unsustainable farming practices in Nigeria.